Greetings from Tel Aviv, Israel

Tel Aviv - Day 2

We landed in Tel Aviv yesterday around 1:00 PM local time. Apparently Friday is the worst day to land in Israel - Shabbat. The entire country is closed Friday at around 2:00 PM - Saturday until around 4:00 PM. Tomorrow will be the first day that we will really be able to go and see anything. We are planning on heading down to the Carmel Market - one of the largest local markets in the center of Tel Aviv. The big question on everyone's mind before I left was how safe is it? It's wierd. Tel Aviv is a very safe city - I feel more comfortable walking down the street at night in Tel Aviv than I do in some parts of downtown Indy. But, the lack of petty crime does not take away the idea that is always looming overhead - to the north about 75 miles, Syria is in the middle of a violent uprising; to the south west Libya is doing the same. Although there is not a great sense of "fear" it seems that everyone here is well aware that their life could be interrupted by violence at any given moment. So far, we have not had any problems...things have been great. However, there is always that thought of "what if." Once again, an international trip has made me even more grateful to live in the country that I do. These are fears that are unknown to me - we simply don't worry about them on a daily basis. To keep up with developments in the Middle East, I've been watching CNN world news - the top story...the looming shutdown of the American government. Our government looks like a bunch of rambling idiots to the rest of the world...and John Boehner still looks all plastic and creepy.

Jumping off my soap box...here are a few pictures that I took today. This is the Israli version of the Keebler Elf...and those things rock. I ate the whole bag. I don't know how many calories I ate, all that stuff is in Hebrew.

Picture of the Mediterranean from the balcony of the hotel.

Tel Aviv from the hotel balcony...these flats start at around $1 million US.

And at last...the US Embassy. It is right down the street from the hotel (about a 5 minute walk...or 30 second run it I had to).

That's all for tonight. I will try and get more pictures posted in the next day or so (internet connection is $20 a day).